Take a train journey from Stroud along the Chalford Valley to Kemble and enjoy the views (part 2)

By:  Blue Badge Tour Guide - Anne Bartlett

Stroud railway station

 The second part of the journey will take you in an easterly direction towards Stroud across a brick built viaduct high over the A46. As the train pulls into the Victorian station at Stroud, you’ll notice on the right hand side a beautifully restored, red brick building, which was originally a factory for making garments, one of a number of successful clothing factories that were around the town in the 19th and 20th century. The coming of the railway added to Stroud’s prosperity providing transport for the workforce, the faster movement of goods, cheaper coal and better access for the shops, but at the same time it was economic disaster for the canals.


The restored Hill Paul Building Stroud

As the train leaves the station, look at the map and you will see that the railway line runs alongside the Thames and Severn Canal and they both run through the Chalford Valley, supposedly called the “Golden Valley” by Queen Victoria. In autumn the valley looks beautiful as the trees are changing colour but in Victorian times it would have been full of sulphurous smelling smoke as noxious fumes poured out of the factory chimneys. The golden valley referred to, not so much to the beauty here but to the wealth created through the production of cloth. This area was famous for the red cloth known as Stroud Scarlet which clothed the soldiers across the British Empire.

As you travel along, look out of the left hand window to see the channel of what was once the Severn and Thames Canal, now disused and without water. And imagine the enormous hard work and manual effort involved in building this canal in the 1780’s it was a huge undertaking. Not only did thousands of navigators or navvies as they were called have to dig deep into the ground along the whole course of the proposed waterway to create a channel, wide and deep enough to take the boats. They were doing all the hard work by hand using picks and shovels; and wheelbarrows were needed to cart the spoil away from the site. They built many locks as the boats had to be gradually lifted up the hill towards the top of the Cotswolds, they built the longest tunnel ever built at the time between Sapperton and Daneway to take the boats through the top of the hill. A large port was built at Brimscombe with wharves, warehouses and stables (it was horses that pulled the boats and carts before steam engines were used).

Once built, the canals required a considerable army of workers to keep the water borne traffic moving efficiently. Each stretch of canal would have a lengthsman who was responsible for the maintenance of his section of canal. Lock keepers were needed to open locks and collect tolls. At Brimscombe they needed dockers, warehousemen, carters, blacksmiths, wheelwrights - all sorts of different trades.

When the railways started to be built, the navvies who had dug the canals transferred their skills to building the railways. The canals were often taken over by the rail companies to transport building materials to the sites, then, once the railway was built the canals were no longer needed and they were eventually allowed to fall into decline.

The train will continue to climb the valley and you will see scattered houses on the hillside then suddenly the view is lost as the train disappears into the Sapperton rail tunnels, before reaching the Victorian station at Kemble. Here we will have reached the Gloucestershire border.  The train will continue on to London Paddington, via Swindon and Reading.

It's a fascinating journey, full of interest and worth taking time to watch the passing countryside.